5 areas of healthcare that are hot now because of AI

Healthcare will be one of the sectors most profoundly transformed by AI. Delivering care remains highly manual, labor-intensive, and fraught with inefficiencies; AI has the potential to significantly reduce costs, expand access, and improve quality. But we’re in the early innings when it comes to AI being used in real clinical settings. Still, the promise of it is already inspiring investors and entrepreneurs to think deeply about where to place their bets, so much so that AI bets attracted more than two-thirds of all venture capital dollars for the past few quarters.

Some would say we’re in a hype cycle, while others argue that AI is even undervalued, given its potential. Personally, I tend to flip flop between the two points of view, sometimes feeling that it’s the most incredible technological innovation since the printing press and on other days feeling frustrated and fatigued with all the AI-generated content that LinkedIn and other sites are now awash with.

I’m also concerned about the computing power required for all this and the impact on the environment, as well as the fabrications and the hallucinations that are already driving major medical errors. There’s so much “garbage in, garbage out” potential with this technology. Lastly, there’s the potential for massive job loss and dislocation if this technology meets its potential. No country in the world is prepared for its citizens to enter into an age of abundance, rather I fear increasing inequities. This era is already upon us. As one CEO friend put it to me recently after finishing a big layoff of engineering and customer service teams: “Yes, I feel bad. But it’s also my job to make my company more efficient.”

I make it a point to talk to people across the industry, including AI technologists, doctors, nurses, administrators, call center workers, venture capitalists, and more. I also meet with companies that are building AI for the sector, and I’m actively investing.

So here are the five biggest, near-term opportunities I see for AI in health care, inclusive of a few perspectives from operators in the field, as well as potential risks and downsides to consider.

I put this category first for a reason. Revenue cycle is piping hot right now, which includes solutions that target payers as well as those that are provider-facing. Because it relates to the efficiency of getting paid, which clearly matters when margins are constrained, health systems are making big investments in AI to improve their revenue cycle processes. Per a recent crop of surveys, they anticipate that the technology will be mainstream in the next five years. Payers are also getting in on the action, and are already using AI to detect fraud and ensure policy compliance.

Revenue cycle is a $150 billion market that includes everything from coding, patient payment estimates, preventing dials from payers, streamlining prior authorization, and more.

Something to watch: The media is keeping close tabs on payers that are using AI to deny care, particularly if it involves leveraging technology that is rife with bias. There’s real potential for harm without a human in the loop, and an American Medical Association study indicated that more than three in five physicians are concerned that AI is increasing prior authorization denials.